Decisions, Decisions – Spring Transfers 2020 Edition

We Admit It! The day you have been patiently waiting for is finally here. As of today, we have completed our spring transfer review process. Spring transfer decisions have been launched, and will be arriving in your inbox shortly.

Below you will find all pertinent information about how decisions are released and what each decision means.

Decision Release

• Decision emails were sent this evening (December 6th) to the email address provided in your application.
• Though decisions have officially been launched, it will take some time for all emails to leave our server and reach your inbox.
• Decision emails are sent to all applicants regardless of decision (assuming you submitted a completed spring transfer application).
• Please check your spam/junk folders in case the email landed there instead of your inbox (this does sometimes happen).
• The sender of the email will be “William & Mary.” The subject will either be “Good News” or “William & Mary Admission Decision.”
• Those who are admitted will also receive a formal admission packet in the mail in the coming days. Those who are not admitted will only receive a decision email.
• Note: If you submitted a completed spring transfer application and did not receive a decision email from us this evening, please do not panic. There are a number of reasons why this could have happened. Please contact us starting on Monday. We will investigate what happened and report back to you. If need be, we can re-launch your decision email, as well as mail a hard copy to you.
• Second Note: As decisions are arriving to inboxes, we will be signing off until Monday, where we will be more than happy to assist you. Please review this blog in its entirety for answers to any immediate questions. We will respond throughout the week to any other questions or comments posted to this blog.

Decisions

Admit: Congratulations, and welcome to the Tribe! It is our absolute pleasure to welcome you to the William & Mary community. We have full confidence that your experiences, passions, stories and interests will meaningfully enhance our university. An official admission letter signed personally by Dean Meghan Madler will be mailed to you. In the meantime, pat yourself on the back, give someone a high five, do a happy dance… in other words, CELEBRATE. You’ve earned it. We are thrilled to welcome you to the Tribe.

We realize that there is a lot to consider and get done over the next few weeks, but all of this hard work will soon pay off. Please let us know if we can be of any assistance – we are here to help you if we can. Congratulations again on this terrific accomplishment. One Tribe. And now it’s yours.

Deny: We are genuinely sorry that we’re not able to offer you admission at this time. We know that you were hoping for a more positive outcome, and we understand that you’re likely disappointed and frustrated by our decision. There’s little we can say that will make this decision feel any better. We know it’s not what you were hoping for, and we are truly sorry that we couldn’t offer you better news. Transfer admission, just like freshman admission, is very selective. We are faced with hundreds of great applications for a fairly limited number of spots. As a result, we have to turn down accomplished students such as yourself.

While we wish that we were able to accept every talented student wanting to attend W&M, the competitive nature of our applicant pool coupled with our smaller size makes this impossible to do. Throughout our deliberations, the decisions we make are not between good and bad applicants, but between great and great applicants. Your admission decision is in no way a reflection on what you’ve accomplished or on what you might accomplish as a member of the W&M community. It is simply a product of an exceedingly competitive and selective admission process.

If W&M is your ultimate goal, there is the opportunity to reapply once you’ve pursued additional coursework and have additional grades to show the Admission Committee. However, it’s also absolutely fair to recognize that this is now your second, possibly even your third or fourth, go around with the college application process (and let’s face it, applying to colleges is not anyone’s favorite pastime). You may determine what’s best for you right now is to accept an admission offer from another institution and to complete your degree. That is understandable and fair.

Please keep in mind that we cannot waitlist spring transfer applicants, as the timeline from admission offer to arriving on campus is so truncated that it doesn’t allow for a waitlist process to play out. Because of this, there are many students who had stronger applications than a deny decision implies. In many cases, students who have re-applied for future semesters with additional coursework and grades have been admitted. Sometimes a single semester of continued strong academic performance can make a difference. We encourage you to reach out if you have any questions about your admissions decision. We wish you all the best going forward.

Thank you to all of our applicants for your patience as we have been carefully navigating our review process. It has been humbling to review your many talents, interests and accomplishments. Personally speaking, it has been an incredible honor, hearing all of your diverse and remarkable stories that have brought you to where you are today. Whatever the outcome of your individual application, please know how much we appreciate you applying to William & Mary, and how confident we are that you will accomplish great things moving forward.

Again, a sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of our transfer applicants. We are so very impressed by each of you, and wish you all a tremendous rest of your college career.

Take care, Happy Holidays, and Go Tribe.

Jack Zhang
Assistant Dean of Admission